The Frag's Engines
by Tie-dyed Trickster
Summary: Bulma usually gets what she wants, but not this time. Part 13 of the Geta!verse


Bulma was sitting on the steps of her capsule house, glaring, when Geta entered the clearing. After shrugging his pack of groceries onto the ground, he walked over and sat down next to her, chin in his hands, and stared in the same direction. After a few moments he spoke.

"Okay, I give up – what are we looking at?"

"That!" Bulma snapped, pointing. Geta followed her finger.

"What, the Frag? I thought you loved the Frag, you said it was, and I quote, 'an intellectual wet dream of technology.' What happened – did the sparkle wear off after you got into its engines?"

Bulma glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, trying not to let amusement ruin her bad mood. "You don't talk like that around other people, you know."

He waved a hand dismissively. "You hit me in the head with a hand-held radar – we share a profound bond now."

"A profound bond," she repeated skeptically.

"Indeed," he nodded seriously, "Without even knowing it, you initiated an obscure and ancient for of saiyan courtship, so now I can talk to you about anything. I have to bear your child, though."

Even Bulma's patented sulk couldn't stand up to a line like that delivered with a dead-serious expression, and she laughed. "Still making up shit, Geta?"

" 'til the day I die, woman," he gave her an easy grin, leaning back on his hands. "So, now that it's established that I'm still incorrigible, what's got your tail in a twist?"

Bulma snorted – he'd obviously picked that phrase up from the saiyans – but relented, her gaze going back to the ship. "That engine's amazing. Even if it didn't have all of Raditz's mods, it would still be amazing. But I can't see it in action because the artificial gravity of the ship is too strong!"

Geta tilted his head. "How strong is it?"

"As far as the readings I've made so far can discern, it's about ten times Earth's," Bulma pulled her legs up and rested her chin on her knees, glaring. "Raditz says it's set to Vegetasei's gravity, and he won't change it because it's really hard to calibrate those things apparently when you're not in a gravity field that equals the one you're trying to match and he doesn't want to lose it. And he won't take the engine out to let it run outside the field because he just damn well won't. That big, beautiful engine, and I can't see it in action!" Bulma flopped on the ground. "Why is it my lot to suffer? Is it because I'm too beautiful and smart? Is the universe punishing me for being so gifted?" she flung an arm over her face dramatically.

Geta rolled his eyes at her theatrics. "So get heavier so you can get used to it."

Bulma was upright again in an instant, eyes dangerously narrow. "You have fifteen seconds to rephrase that."

"I mean, build your own gravity field or something," Geta hastily explained, "One you can control, so you can get used to being in heavier gravity a bit at a time! Kakarrot and Raditz go back and forth all the time, and they're just fine."

"That's actually not a bad idea," the blue-haired scientist blinked, then got a considering look on her face, "I'd have to calculate in differences in physiology, of course, and maybe put together a room – or a personal gravity control!"

"What?"

"A belt or something," Bulma elaborated, "So that I could be out and doing stuff as opposed to being stuck in some stuffy old room! I could do something to make me lighter and be able to go in right away or- no, actually, the two contradictory fields might interact badly, I don't wanna die for this." she frowned, "I'll have to do the adjusting thing after all. Damn, that's going to be a pain in the ass."

"You'll be in better shape by the end of it, though," Geta pointed out, "And your ki'll go up – who knows, maybe I'll be able to teach you some tricks!" he held up one hand and summoned two small balls of ki to his fingertips, sending them spinning and dancing around each other. Bulma watched curiously.

"That's new."

"Yeah," he grinned, "I got the idea from Yamcha. They're not very stable, but it's fun. Here, let's see if- dang." He'd tried to summon a third ki ball and lost his control of the first two in the process. Shaking his hand a bit, he winced. "Oof, that stings."

Bulma raised an eyebrow. "And the purpose of that was…?"

"I told you, it's fun!"

"Right," she shook her head with a grin, "I'm not a fighter, Vegeta, I don't think there's any point to me learning-" she paused mid-sentence as a thought occurred to her. "Actually, if I do end up getting reserves high enough for it, there _is_ one technique I wouldn't mind learning."

"Really?" Geta asked hopefully.

"Sure," she winked, then looked up, "After all, you know what they say – the sky's the limit."

OoOoOoOoO

 _Before anyone panics, I'll say now that no, Bulma's never going to have a huge amount of ki, or even learn to fight. Her strengths lie in her mind and her technology, not her muscles, and I don't want to undermine that, ever. I love Bulma's style, and how she often manages to help even without having a lot of ki or any fighting skills._

 _That said, space has many fun toys and machines, and, now that she knows about it, I can't see her staying away forever, so being able to handle heavier gravity will benefit her in the long run – this segment is basically getting her ready for the future. Her ki will probably hit a level of 50 at its_ _ **absolute**_ _highest, if that, and for the most part it will manifest as increased durability rather than strength, since that's what her training will have been for (also, shhhh, only DBZ logic). Kakarrot/Goku could supposedly handle Vegetasei's gravity (10x Earth) with a power level of two, so, factoring in that saiyans seem to naturally be a hell of a lot sturdier than humans, I think this level will let her handle 10x gravity quite comfortably._

 _Bulma's progress is also going to be relatively slow, though the belt will help – I can't really see Bulma working out the way she'd need to in order to get her ki reserves to that level, but I can see her going about her everyday tasks at gradually higher gravity and becoming accustomed to it that way. It's going to take her a few years to get there, though, as she won't be 'training' as consistently as the fighters of the group. She does, after all, have a job to do – Capsule Corp isn't going to stay on top without the smartest person in the world working to keep it there, after all! So just assume she's started wearing the belt on and off starting here. (Raditz is also going to relent before that time is up and do something so he won't lose the ship's calibration and Bulma can see the Frag's engine running)._

 _Also, who_ _ **wouldn't**_ _learn how to fly if they had the chance? ;)_


End file.
